The wind farm which is taking shape above Greenock is due to be complete by the end of this year, developers have said.
Work on the eight 110-metre turbines started last year, after a Scottish Government Reporter backed an appeal against Inverclyde Council’s refusal of the planning application.
A community benefit fund will pay £72,000 a year once the wind farm is operational, but this will not be open to local causes in the Rosneath Peninsula and Helensburgh area.
The wind farm aims to produce 24 MW of energy which is enough to power around 44% of Inverclyde households.
Inverclyde Council rejected the plan in 2014 – Argyll and Bute Council had, saying the turbines would be ‘incongruous and unduly prominent’.
Scottish Natural Heritage, Glasgow Airport and NATS were also among the 700 objectors.
But Scottish Government Reporter David Buylla dismissed these arguments and allowed the appeal, although saying that the view from Kilcreggan would be affected more than sites such as Ardoch, Cardross and Helensburgh.
He commented: “I note that some of the landscape to the north of the firth is of the highest value, being within a national park.
“However, when seen from the north, whether from the national park or from shoreline towns, the separation distance from the these landscape character areas is such that the development would appear to be a relatively distant element of another landscape and would not appear as an intrusion into the landscape at those locations.
“I am satisfied therefore that it would not detract materially from the character of those landscapes.”
He said that although the turbines would be nine kilometres from Kilcreggan, they would be ‘clearly seen on the skyline’ as an ‘eye-catching focal point on the horizon above extensive shoreline urban development that is also visible’.
Overall Mr Buylla decided that the renewable energy generated by the development outweighed the arguments against it and allowed the appeal subject to 32 conditions.
The Cove Community Wind Farm project had offered a share of the revenue to communities outside the area which would be affected by the view, but that approach was not taken with the Inverclyde project.
A spokesperson for BayWa r.e. Operation Services Limited said this week: “The community benefit fund is being administered by a third party organisation, Inverclyde Community Fund, and is only available to residents of Inverclyde Council area so unfortunately Cove and Rosneath residents would not be eligible to apply.”
Just a slight problem:
Renewable energy is cripplingly expensive, hopelessly unreliable, massacres wildlife, destroys landscapes, destabilises the grid, harms indigenous peoples, and actually causes climate change says a meticulous review just published in the scientific journal Energies by a team of Irish and US based researchers.